How to download your X (Twitter) archive (and what's actually inside it)
Request your X archive in a couple of taps, wait for the ZIP, and open it offline. Here's the exact path, how long it takes, what the files contain, and the one thing the archive leaves out.
You want a copy of your own X account: every post you've written, the DMs, the account history, the lot. X does let you download it. But the request is buried a few menus deep, it takes a day or so to arrive, and when the ZIP finally lands, the format is stranger than you'd expect, and the one thing most people are really after is missing entirely.
Here's the exact path to request your archive, how long it takes, what's inside the file, and what the archive quietly leaves out.
The quick answer: how to request your X archive
The steps are the same on web and mobile:
- Open Settings and privacy (click More in the left sidebar on desktop, or tap your profile icon then the gear on mobile).
- Go to Your account.
- Tap Download an archive of your data.
- Confirm your password. X may also send a verification code to your email or phone to prove it's you.
- Tap Request archive.
That's it. There's nothing else to configure. X now goes off and builds the file, which takes a while.
How long does it take?
Expect roughly 24 hours, though it can be faster or slower depending on how much history your account has. X notifies you by email and in-app when it's ready. You then return to the same Download an archive of your data screen and tap Download to grab the ZIP. The download link is only valid for a limited window (about a week), so don't sit on the notification. If you miss it, just request a fresh archive.
What's actually inside the archive
The download is a single ZIP file (named something like
twitter-2026-06-29-xxxxxxxx.zip). Unzip it and you'll find two kinds of thing:
Your archive.html, a self-contained viewer. Double-click it and it opens in your browser, offline, with a familiar timeline-style layout you can scroll and search locally.- A
data/folder of.jsfiles, the raw data behind that viewer. Despite the.jsextension, these are really JSON with a one-line JavaScript wrapper (for example,tweets.jsstarts withwindow.YTD.tweets.part0 = [...]).
Between them, the archive typically includes:
- Every post you've published (originals, replies, reposts), with timestamps and the engagement numbers at export time
- Your likes
- Direct messages, both one-on-one and group
- Followers and following lists
- Your lists, Moments, and account media you uploaded
- Account information: username history, creation date, the email and phone on file, login locations, and your ads interaction data
Your DMs are in here too
The archive bundles your private direct messages in plain form. Treat the ZIP as sensitive: don't drop it in a shared folder or hand the whole thing to a third-party tool you don't trust.
The catch: your bookmarks are not in the archive
This is the part that catches people out. The official X data archive includes your likes, but it does not include your bookmarks. It's a gap that's existed for years, developers have asked X to close it repeatedly, and as of 2026 nothing has changed.
So if you've been treating Bookmarks as your real "save for later" pile (which is exactly what it's for), the archive won't help you back it up. You'll request the file expecting your saved tweets and find everything except them.
If exporting your bookmarks specifically is the goal, see our deeper walkthrough of how X bookmarks really work, including the export options.
Even what's included still rots
There's a second, quieter problem. The archive is your account's data, but the content it points to mostly lives back on X. Your likes, for instance, show up as a list of tweet text and links, not as durable, self-contained copies.
The moment one of those original posts is deleted, set to private, or its author is suspended, the link in your archive resolves to nothing. You'll have proof you once liked something, and no way to see what it was. It's the same link rot that breaks every other kind of saved link, and a static yearly export does nothing to stop it.
| What you want | Official X archive | A capture-first copy |
|---|---|---|
| Your own posts | Yes | Yes |
| Your likes | Yes | Yes |
| Your bookmarks | No | Yes |
| Survives the original being deleted | No | Yes |
| Searchable by topic, not just keyword | No | Yes |
| Always up to date (not a yearly snapshot) | No | Yes |
How to actually keep your saved tweets
The archive is genuinely useful for one thing: a legal-style record of your own account that you can keep offline. Download one. It's the right move for your posts and DMs.
But for the tweets you save from other people, the things you'll actually want to find again, a once-a-year ZIP that excludes bookmarks and rots on a delete is the wrong tool. You need a copy that's made the instant you save, of the full post, kept in something you can search.
That's what Stashr does. Its browser extension watches for saves on X and mirrors the full post (text, author, media, and context) into a private library the moment you bookmark it. Because it's a real copy, it survives the original being deleted, and because every save is AI-tagged on the way in, you can search the way you actually remember things:
stashr.search("that thread about espresso ratios");
// → returns the post, even if the original was later deletedWorking with tweets you've already got?
You don't need an account to start. Our free tools can turn a tweet into clean Markdown for Notion or Obsidian, extract its plain text and a citation, or inspect the raw JSON behind any tweet without an API key.
Common questions
How long does the X archive take to download?
Building the archive usually takes around 24 hours, though it can be quicker or slower depending on your account's size. The actual download, once it's ready, is just the time to pull a ZIP file.
Why can't I find the download button?
You'll only see a Download button on the Download an archive of your data screen after X has finished building the file and notified you. Before that, you'll only see Request archive. If the button has vanished, your link may have expired (they're valid for a limited window), so request a new archive.
Does the X archive include my bookmarks?
No. The archive includes your likes but not your bookmarks. To keep your bookmarked tweets, you'll need a third-party exporter or a capture-first tool like Stashr that copies each save as you make it.
Can I download someone else's X archive?
No. You can only download an archive of your own account, after confirming your password. The official tool has no way to export another user's data.
Is the archive file safe to share?
Be careful. The archive contains your direct messages and personal account details in readable form. Don't post it publicly or upload the whole ZIP to a service you don't trust.
Don't wait for a yearly ZIP that leaves out your saves.
Stashr copies every tweet you save the moment you save it. Full content, auto-tagged, searchable in plain English, and it never rots.
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